Power Failure

Power failure – Where has all the money gone?

Today I have read an article on the BBC news web page, about a company called Powa Technology's. http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-36070904 After reading this article and reading some of the comments left by other readers it struck me how similar this company is to the Government.

Politicians are taking our money (the investors) and they are spending it … where? To quote the article “Last month I wrote about the collapse of the UK tech "unicorn" Powa Technologies, a firm I called a textbook example of how not to run a business. Back then it was hard to see how Powa had run through so much money so quickly.” Where I am living now we are in a time where we could use the phrase “how not to run a country” and “how can a country run through so much money so quickly”

Our politicians are like the owner/executives of this company, they run it so badly that the investors have to call in the administrators to try and claw back some of their investments, only we can't call in the administrators when we see our Government failing so badly, no we have to accept pay/job cuts and dig deeper into our pockets to pay more taxes whilst the politicians come away with their wages, bonuses and pensions intact.

To quote one of the comments after the article: “But as usual, those at the top have banked their huge salaries and bonuses while those at the bottom leave unpaid with no realistic chance of ever seeing their money”

This article leaves me wondering how different our world would be if the first people to see pay cuts were the politicians themselves and the hard working millions at the bottom had their wages protected as they are the ones earning the least and needing the money the most?.  

Democracy, or the lack of ...

When is a democracy not a democracy? When it's in Briton!

If you ask any politician, they will tell you that Great Briton is a democracy. They are how ever incorrect and I feel it's very important for the average person in Briton to understand why the politicians are wrong and why we are not living in a democratic country.

Democracy is power coming from the people and this is the one thing that will bring hardened politicians awake in the middle of the night screaming.

Well what exactly is democracy?

The term originates from the Greek δημοκρατία (dēmokratía) "power from the people", which was found from δῆμος (dêmos) "people" and κράτος (krátos) "power"

Democracy by definition means the government by people. That means that all the people should be able to have their say in one way or another in everything that affects their lives. Dictionaries usually say that this right can either be exercised directly (by all members of a community having the possibility to enter personally, without mediators, their position on a particular issue into the decision making process - modern technology is able to provide this possibility for increasingly larger and larger communities), or through representatives (members of legislative bodies). This second arrangement is then called Representative Democracy.
Representative democracy would be fine if the representatives would really make all their decisions only after consulting their constituencies. In the least, after having a clear idea about the views of their constituents on a particular issue, and trying to accommodate these views as best as possible (or postpone the decisions until an overwhelming majority of the constituents would be happy with them).
Unfortunately, a vast majority of countries that call themselves Representative Democracies are not true democracies according to the above definition. Most of them are actually just Elected Dictatorships. People can vote usually only once every four or five years. They do not vote on any issues. They just elect their so called representatives who then until the next elections have no obligations by law and little incentives to base their decisions on individual issues on the wishes on their electorate. They hardly ever bother to consult them on their stands on various issues. Therefore, legislative bodies composed of such "representatives" act in a very dictatorial manner between the elections.

http://www.whatisdemocracy.net/

Democracy is where the average person gets to have a say in how the country is run, and the country is run to benefit the population as a whole rather than a small proportion of voters, the politicians and the party's they are in and a select elite. As a practical exercise, try writing to your politician asking them to represent you and your views or concerns in parliament (which is their job after all) in a matter that goes against their party's policy. They will do nothing, if you are lucky you'll get a generic reply, which begs the question, who is your MP really serving, their constituents who voted them in or their party? MP have to tow the line as they say which means it's the party's interests first and their constituents/country a poor second!

It's about now that the politicians would be jumping up and down and shouting “but we give you a vote in the elections! That's democracy right there!” The elections are however anything but democratic. Briton uses a voting system called First Past The Post, FPTP. This voting system benefits the two major party's as they only need to collect a small percentage of the overall votes in order to get into power. Small party's that can't put a candidate in every constituency don't stand a chance and yet over all may pull in a greater number of votes. In many areas voters want to support their chosen party but can't, and are then faced with ether not voting or worse voting for a party they don't believe in.

Every government since the 1950s has taken power based on less than 50% of the popular vote. None has won majority public support at the ballot box. In the 2005 election, Labour won 35% of the vote but bagged 55% of the seats. Of eligible voters, only 22% voted Labour. Yet with the support of only one-fifth of the electorate Labour won a 66-seat majority. This is not democracy. It echoes the gerrymanderingⁱ and ballot-rigging of two centuries ago, which galvanised the Chartists to campaign for a democratic, representative parliament. The electoral process is "rigged". In 2005, if you total all the votes cast for the main parties, it took an average 26,906 votes to elect a Labour MP, 44,373 to elect a Tory MP and 96,539 votes to elect a Lib Dem MP. Not since the rotten boroughs of the 18th century have elections been so corrupt. This democratic deficit is a direct result of the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system, which allows the election of MPs and governments with minority support. FPTP enabled Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair to win landslide majorities based on popular votes of only 35% to 44%. FPTP has resulted not in ‘strong, stable government’, but in bad, divisive, unpopular, unrepresentative government, set against the backdrop of an angry, anti-political, even apolitical, climate, in which the will of the majority is ignored, and anyone left of centre has no major party to vote for.


So what should we do? We as in the electorate. We need to take power back from the undemocratic party's by forcing them to adopt a voting system that works for us and not just for the two big party's. Politicians need to represent us, not just their own best interests. I think that proportional representation is one of the better options open to us.


Proportional Representation. An electoral system in which parties gain seats in proportion to the number of votes cast for them. Proportional systems protect against bad, unrepresentative public policy, and ensure that the wishes of all voters – not just those in marginal constituencies – are taken into account.

iIn the process of setting electoral districts, gerrymandering is a practice intended to establish a political advantage for a particular party or group by manipulating district boundaries. The resulting district is known as a gerrymander, however, that word can also refer to the process. The term gerrymandering has negative connotations.   

Advertising Doesn't Pay

Poem of the Day

50/04/2016

Advertising Doesn't Pay

Most TV adverts are a waste of time
But useful when you need a cup of tea,
You can turn the sound down and watch them mime,
Most TV adverts are a waste of time.
I'll never buy the things they show but I'm
Most grateful how the break enables me,
Most TV adverts are a waste of time
But useful when you need a cup of tea.

By Elisabeth Sheaffer 

Blackouts

Poem of the Day 04/04/2016 Apagões Nunca tememos o escuro. Afinal frutos dos sonhos, somos inteiros e maduros e se nos encontramos nesta noite vadia de promessas tantas desarrumo tuas tranças te repuxo bem de perto de um modo incorreto e nu Senhores donos do poder podem desligar disjuntores racionar, nos dizer devedores por todos os arredores mas que ninguém se atreva a investigar certo quarto luminoso bem no meio dos apagões pois se o fazem verão nossos corpos nus cheios de luz coesos clarões dentro da noite um homem uma mulher e nossos sexos, desejos permanentemente acesos By José Carlos Limeira

Blackouts We never fear the dark. Finally, the fruits of our dreams, we are whole and ripe and if we meet this night, sensual woman of easy promises, I will let down your hair I will pull you tightly to me in a way both improper and bare Let the big shot power-brokers disconnect the circuit breakers ration the source, reclaim our debt from down town to the outskirts, yet let no one dare look into a certain room illuminated right in the middle of the blackouts because whoever does so will see our corporeal nudity united full of light radiance from within the night a man a woman and our sexes, desires permanently ignited

Prisoner of Poverty

Poem of the day

03/04/2016

Prisoner of Poverty

Do good, they say...
Be an outstanding citizen,they say...
Make good grades, they say...
Graduate, they say...
Go to college, they say...
Well, I did my time!
18 years I gave!
For what? 
I ask...
To put back?
To not prosper ?
To be in debt?
To be in the dark?
To be put on the system as my parents tried to escape me from?
To see my kids suffer?
To be ashamed of G-A-R-C-I-A?
To be out of my own home?
To not have a dollar to my name?
I tried! 
I tried to runaway,
Escape from you,
Dodge in the shadows,
But, you found me!
You slapped me back where you wanted me and not where I belong 
I am now your prisoner....
By Anatonia Garcia 

Poem of the Day

02/04/2016

Thunderstorms

Angry, dark, clouds, they fill the sky,
The roar of their voices so low and loud,
The rain they drop, so heavy at times,
Tears are flowing, from the heavens so high,

Why do I love them, I do not know,
So dark, so dreary, yet mystifying at least,
I watch in amazement at the tears that fall,
Why do I love them, but I do you know,

I do not know why, I love them so dear,
A fascination of nature, I look forward too,
So angry and dark, why do I care,
I long for them, wish for them, when they are near

Why do I love them, Will I ever know,
Could it be the aftermath, after they leave?
The sun shines bright, the sky is blue,
Could it be sometimes, it leaves a rainbow

The essence of strength, the essence of power,
Beyond the knowledge, of man's creation,
The knowledge it shows, the strength created,
The seeds of a storm, to a beautiful flower.

Could it be that is why, I love them so much,
A question answered, I do believe,
Yes I do love them, I always will,
The power of God, and his tender touch.

By B.J. Ayers

Oh! To Be In April!

Poem of the day

01/04/2016

Today is April fools day so here is a poem about April.

Oh! To Be In April!

(in England, that is)

You can always tell it's April
By the sound of falling rain
That mystic, mournful music
As it trickles down the drain.

We're told we should be thankful
For the kiss of April showers
As it washes all the grass clean
And prepares the soil for flowers.

There's another side to April
Which doesn't bode us good,
When that mini, manic maelstrom
Turns the lawn to liquid mud.

When mice hide under hedges
And hedgehogs take to ground,
The birds are wet and hungry,
The worms have all been drowned.

Within a week, or maybe two,
A million latent seeds
Will germinate and procreate,
To fill the world with weeds.

Then while I'm fighting anarchy,
Armed with my trusty hoe.
Behind me, surreptitiously,
The grass begins to grow.

I ease my taut and breaking back
And nurse my aching bones.
I think I'll call the builders in
To lay some paving stones.

I'll build a concrete jungle
Where I can sit for hours,
Snug in a concrete garden shed
Secure from April Showers.

Thomas Vaughan Jones